


a fraternity, but the two college students are both 40+

by amateur_professional



Series: Bromance Blurbs [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Alcohol, Fluff, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, bros being guys, guys being bros, maybe? - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-07
Updated: 2020-05-07
Packaged: 2021-03-04 20:34:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25452472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amateur_professional/pseuds/amateur_professional
Summary: Herschel breaks into Leo's house again and he's drinking wine out of solo cups. With nobody else home, Leo keeps him company. They chat.
Relationships: Herschel Voigt & Leo Voigt
Series: Bromance Blurbs [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1843462





	a fraternity, but the two college students are both 40+

Randomly appearing in Leo’s living room sort of became Herschel’s thing as of late, and his excuses grew more and more fantastical with every time someone asked. They stopped asking once it got to quips about his nonexistent wife, though Roose would hound him about it as her normal greeting now. She would hop around him in circles, or latch onto a leg while excitedly calling his name.. it was.. really sweet. And anybody with a brain would see how much she adored him. So while his presence was usually a surprise, it wasn’t exactly unwelcome, either. Some friendly company, for a few hours to a few days, was a good trade-off to some of Gum’s sugary snacks going missing afterwards. Or at least Leo thought so. Their eldest daughter still got miffed about it.

Herschel seemed to have kept his word on not snooping around the place when nobody was home, too. While that was just normal human courtesy, it helped with the atmosphere a bit. Gum continued to be a little suspicious about him for the first few visits.

=====

It was a Friday, and somehow, both Roose and Gum had found something to do that would keep them out of the house overnight.

Leo found it.. curious, when they got home from work and found their brother lounging about with a few red solo cups instead of a chocolate bar. There was a half-empty bottle of wine on the table—and if they were more serious about drinks, they would be much more bothered by how he was drinking all that out of a plastic cup like some fraternity kid. Herschel waved at them mid-sip. Ah well, he probably had a good reason for it.

“I didn’t know it was a holiday today.” They deadpanned.

He chuckled. “Was that a joke coming from you that had nothing to do with dying?” They hummed, expressing indifference, then went to hang up their coat. “I’m guessing you want an explanation.” They hummed again, this time a shorter affirmative.

“I would like to know why you’re drinking alone in my living room, yes.”

He didn’t look upset, or like he was trying to hide it, at least. There was only a slight bit of flush on his face, despite half the bottle being gone—and it was a decently sized bottle. He seemed fine, all things considered.

“It’s.. ehh. You know.” He made a vague motion with the cup. “The same kind of ‘business issue’ as the first time I dropped by. Julien and I had something special planned today for a while, but.. that clearly has to be rescheduled, haha.” Okay, maybe he looked a little sad about it now.

He swirled the contents of the cup, watching it stain the sides—then abruptly snapped his fingers. “Wait.”

Leo waited for his amazing proposition.

“Maybe, we could be..” he patted the couch cushions next to him, “drinking buddies?”

Oh. He was asking them to join him? Oddly, that possibility hadn’t crossed their mind. It was a Friday. Some tipsiness shouldn’t be a very big issue unless Roose’s extended slumber party ended early. Hmm, they wondered how their tolerance would be after—

“..No pressure.” He hastily added, seeing their hesitation.

“Uh. Alright.”

“Was that ‘alright’ as in acknowledgement or were you—”

“I’m joining you.”

He beamed.

They sat down and immediately found a cup, already full, being pushed into their hands. ‘No pressure’, huh?

They took a slow sip of the first drink they’ve had in years. The taste was pretty unremarkable, but it was wine and a full 12 ounces of it should be able to give them a light buzz at the very least.. if that was what they were aiming for. Wait, what were ‘drinking buddies’ supposed to do again?

Forgetting that simple fun wasn’t an issue, though, since Herschel seemed content with their silent company. He took care of the talking for the most part.

…

“So, my ex.. do you want to hear the story behind her?” He said after some time, pouring himself the last drops of the wine.

“Sure.”

He cleared his throat. “She was a decent person, I suppose. She was _pleasant_.. but also a total pushover who had that housewife mentality firmly lodged in her head. After the first few dates, it was pretty clear that she was both madly in love with me and in some subservient trance.

“Our marriage wasn’t great, but not horrible, either. We didn’t argue and I’m pretty sure neither of us cheated. I just couldn’t love her back, is all. Thinking about it now, if I was more mature about it I might have been able to help her be her own person.”

He paused, then went to drain half his cup.

“I didn’t want to get married to that woman, but it felt like Dad and Anton would rip me limb from limb if I didn’t.. so that was that.”

Huh. Leo was pretty sure he had shuffled closer to them during that retelling but didn’t bring it up. Even as he pressed up against their side. There were more important things to worry about than him being touchy-feely.

Roughly estimating, he was with her for at least twenty years.. they must’ve been exceptionally assertive to keep him from leaving. “Why were they were so adamant about it, then?” They asked.

“Dad? He was serious about getting some grandkids, since two of his kids left without much warning.”

Leo shifted uncomfortably. He didn’t seem to notice.

“And Anton is a carbon copy of Dad who defends his ideals fanatically, almost. Nothing surprising there, he was always his favourite..” Anton Voigt.. the eldest son. Two years their senior and nearly six years older than Herschel. They were never close when they were younger, but the age difference alone could not explain why; it was more something that went unsaid. It was like their father was intentionally alienating Anton from the rest so that he could leave behind a permanent imprint of himself. So that whatever ideas he had were guaranteed to be passed on.

And nobody intervened? To do that to one’s own child was vile. They would feel sympathetic, but it didn’t sound like he was joking about being ripped apart by them. Maybe what had caused that rift in the first place didn’t really matter anymore.

It was there from the start, and after decades of separation, it was irreparable.

Leo quietly set their empty cup on the table. “And our mother?”

“What about her?”

They regretted bringing it up, but their curiosity edged them on. “How.. what happened to her? I—” They pushed the thoughts of ‘what if I had never left’ out of their mind. It wasn’t important. “What happened after I left? You never covered too much of that.”

…

He huffed. “Hell, big sib. Going right for the heavy stuff? I’ll tell you, but, aah..”

They looked to their right just in time to see him splash hard liquor into his cup from a bottle that definitely wasn’t there before. Then he took an experimental sip of the translucent mess that he had mixed, without flinching. They suddenly understood why, and how their idiot brother had apparently gotten alcohol poisoning several times when he was younger.

It was a relief to see him slide the bottle back in its hidden spot behind the couch. “Make sure this’s the last I’m having, okay? And don’t tell my husband about this.”

They nodded. “Right.” It wasn’t like they regularly spoke to Julien anyway.

He didn’t seem concerned about making the alcohol last, taking a long swig before starting. “Mom was sad after you ran away, of course.. but she said she was kind of glad that you wouldn’t be hurt by the family anymore. What really got her was Emilia walking out on everyone a few years later when it felt like things were finally going back to normal. It was a huge shock and she wasn’t ever the same after that.” Another sip. “I think she tried to get a divorce once.. twice? Never went through with it, though.. don’t think she’d get much out of it.”

“Oh.”

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to know.” Herschel shrugged. “And.. she’s still alive, by the way.. yeah, I should’ve mentioned that. I’m surprised she didn’t die on the spot when she found out about Emilia.”

_They had continued to keep their interactions cold, even when her tone began to change from forced to something more forlorn and they spoke less and less. Then she vanished._

_It was such a stupid, petty grudge to hold against her just because of their conflicts leading up to Leo finally leaving everything and everyone behind. She was always cautious! She had dealt with the pressure from her father by staying out of the way and being that perfect daughter. Leo initially did the same.. but eventually, the built-up frustration couldn’t be ignored any longer. Fawn and Fight. Fawning was safer. They shouldn’t have held it against her, but they did._

_If they had just—_

Herschel had moved to rest his chin on their shoulder and leaning just about his full weight on them. He seemed comfortable. “You’re doing your thing again.”

…Freeze.

“Hey, bro?” He said softly. “Hear me out for a minute?”

They gave a small nod.

“Dad was furious. First you, then Emilia. As he put it, he didn’t have two girls to marry off anymore. It was more of a pride and reputation thing. All he had was Anton—perfect, always following his rules, _dominant_ —” They tensed. ”Anton and me.. shit. Are you—?”

“Keep going.” They snapped.

“Uh, sure.”

…

“Point being, I wasn’t even done high school yet, when all that stuff went down. Didn’t make Dad go any easier on me. It wasn’t tough love.. eh, I think it was the kind of manipulation he did to Anton as a kid? Terrible stuff. I thought I was the delusional one sometimes—I.. I wasn’t sure if I’d imagined the 'you' I knew. The one thing I was sure about?

“A whole lot of that was your fault and I hated you for it.”

They said nothing but avoided meeting his eyes.

“But that was before! Twenty years is a lot of time to think things over. Now I think I was just too much of a coward to cut ties like you did, ’s all. Nobody could stop Dad from marrying you off—so why shouldn’t you run away while you still could?”

“I—”

“Oh for christ’s sake, _shut_ _up_. Your own brother tried to strangle you in your sleep and you still want to counter me?”

Their throat went tight and their heart pounded, even though there were no fingers at their neck. They. No. They could breathe. “..Y-you know?”

“Yeah. My room was next to yours, remember? I heard the whole thing go down.. couldn’t get myself to do anything about it, though.” He grumbled. Not that he could. Who in the world would he tell? The police? They wouldn’t believe him.

“Anyways, the things that’er your fault don’t matter anymore! You could still give Mom a call someday, if you want. And if anyone else alive is still pissed, they’re Dad and Anton. Don’t worry about them; they can go die in a hole for all I care.”

He took their hand, laced their fingers together, and _gripped_ , almost to the point where it would be painful.

Their hands were shaking, but they made an effort to return it.

“And me, I’ll say it again: _I don’t blame you for anything_. I can’t. What kind of brother does it make me if I do?”

..Leo couldn’t have heard it from anybody else, and how much it meant to them couldn’t be put into words. They were rendered speechless. Their face felt weird, though.

It took a bit for them to realize that they were grinning.

“Now that! That’s a million-dollar smile right there!” Herschel declared with one of his own. He roughly pulled them into a snug, one-armed embrace.. that they returned with fervour, surprisingly. A small, but genuine laugh escaped them. It was nice.

=====

“Oh fuck me.” Herschel groaned.

“Language.” Leo chastised.

“ _FUCK ME HARDER._ ” He groaned, more forcefully.

“Well, that isn’t going to help you now, is it? Move over, I need to get up there too.”

He shifted on the branch, one hand firmly holding onto the bark and the other hand rubbing hard on his temple. It wasn’t the worst hangover he’s had; that was probably the time he woke up in the emergency room with his stomach getting pumped. But man if it wasn’t worse when you were seeing spots at the sides of your vision, 10 feet up in a tree. This might give him a fear of heights.

Herschel had suggested they go climb a tree as a joke, for old times’ sake.

(The last time he’d asked them was the last conversation they had before.. the estrangement. Leo, then Leonore, had made an excuse about not feeling well, and that was that.)

He didn’t expect them to accept! Christ!

A hangover-free Leo hefted themselves onto the same branch, though they were still hanging onto another in case something went wrong. It was a sturdy tree, but nature was pretty unpredictable. “You were right, you know.” They said lightly.

Now, he went to the gym and everything, but his sibling was.. making him look bad.

“Huh. About what?”

“This. It is easier to climb trees in pants.”

..He snorted.

“I would laugh, but then I might faint and fall off.”

He reached over to ruffle their hair, which they leaned into.

In a few hours, they’d have to pick up Roose from her friend’s house and try to explain away the bits of bark and moss sticking to them. Gum might pick up on the alcohol lingering on their clothes. Hopefully, she doesn’t ask too many questions about it.

But for now, it was early enough in the morning that there weren’t people in the park to look at them weird.

(Two middle-aged guys sitting in a tree wasn’t something you saw every day, after all.)

**Author's Note:**

> What it would take for Leo to get absolutely sloshed? If it wasn't three decades of loneliness then what the hell could it be?


End file.
